Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/03/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:00 PM 3/29/96 +0100, Edi Weitz wrote: >A camera dealer told me that these copies were built using original German >equipment that was brought to the U.S.S.R. after World War II. The cameras >that are sold now are not older than five years (according to him) although >they seem to use some kind of "stone-washing" to make the leather case look >old. Well, not quite so. The Soviets pillaged the Zeiss Jena and Zeiss Ikon Dresden plants right after the War: the US occupied Jena first and cleaned out the high-tech stuff, which went to Oberkochen, but the Russians objected when we boxed up the lens production machinery for transfer West. We then transferred Jena to the Soviets, who simply took the flatcars we'd loaded and headed them east to Krasnagorsk. The Prewar Zeiss Jena Contax rangefinder lens line is still available new from Krasnagorsk, though now in Leica thread-mount and coated. Dresden was occupied from the start by the Soviets, who transferred the Contax RF assembly line to the Arsenal Plant in Kiev. However, Wetzlar was occupied by the US Army -- the founder of my local camera store was the unit photographer, and I have spoken extensively to Emil Keller, the US manager of Leica, and Colonel Nelson, who was in overall charge of the Allied Optical Reparations effort. Nothing Leica was ever in Russian hands. Simply put, the camera man got the story wrong. The fake Leicas are FED's, from the Ukraine: these are manufactured from straight Soviet equipment which never saw the west bank of the Elbe. Best, Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!